Hawaii 3R’s

“When I learned of the large backlog in school repairs, I felt that the greater community needed to step forward to support quality learning environments for our children.  It is easy to lay blame, and then look the other way, but the children are the ultimate losers.  I believe it must be our collective responsibility and challenge.” - Senator Inouye

In 2001, U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye established an innovative program called Hawaii 3R’s to help provide a better and safer learning environment for the students of Hawaii’s public schools by completing needed repair and maintenance projects.  The three “Rs” stands for Repair, Remodel, and Restore Hawaii’s public schools.

Hawaii 3R’s is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that leverages State and Federal funds with private contributions, skilled labor, and the “sweat equity” of volunteers.  “Sweat equity” is the manual labor that is donated by the various volunteer groups in the community.  Our objective is to activate and empower communities so that they take ownership of the schools and continue to volunteer even after the project is completed.

Hawaii 3R’s creates and fosters partnerships with State agencies, trade unions and associations, private businesses, all branches of the military, community groups, private foundations, legislators, parents, teachers, and students.  These partners provide both skilled and unskilled volunteers, supplies and materials, and monetary donations.  Furthermore, the scope and quality of the work is much higher than typical volunteer-only project because Hawaii 3R’s partners with or hires contractors as necessary, to perform portions of the work that are too difficult, dangerous, or time consuming for volunteers to do.

The end result is that schools complete much needed repair and maintenance projects more quickly than would be done through the traditional process, while gaining community partners along the way.

Learn more by downloading Hawaii 3R’s 2007-2008 annual report (PDF).